At present, most of the general fabric folding machines used in the industry adopt a fabric rolling structure of a circular knitting machine and change or add a fabric folding machine structure for receiving and folding fabrics, so as to achieve an industrial uniformity and the value of a multifunctional product. In the technical area of the present invention, three issued patents related to a fabric folding mechanism of a circular knitting machine are cited for reference as follows:
1. R.O.C. Pat. Publication No. 00280327 entitled “Fabric folding machine” is hereinafter referred to as “Prior Art 1”.
2. R.O.C. Pat. Publication No. 00441612 entitle “Improved fabric folding machine structure” is hereinafter referred to as “Prior Art 2”.
3. R.O.C. Pat. Publication No. 00490520, entitled “Large circular knitting fabric folding apparatus having the functions of synchronously adjusting the tension of rolled fabrics, folding fabrics and rolling fabrics” is hereinafter referred to as “Prior Art 3”.
The abstract of the Prior Art 1 describes “a fabric folding machine uses a driving rod of a rotary disc of a knitting machine to transmit kinetic energy from a belt to a pressure disc, and a transmission axle of the pressure disc is engaged with a gear, and the gear drives a driven axle, and the driven gear of the driven axle drives a rotary rod for periodic movements. With the periodic movements of the rotary rod, a fabric folding board can be moved back and forth regularly and displaced by the guiding of the rotary rod. Due to the back and forth movements of the fabric folding board, woven fabrics are stacked naturally to replace the traditional roller for rolling fabrics that may cause loosened fabrics due to the pulling of the edges of the fabrics.”
The abstract of the Prior Art 2 describes “an improved fabric folding machine structure, particularly to a design of a fabric folding machine that can change speed to produce stepless speed changes according to the speed of removing fabrics, and the fabric folding machine comprises a primary bevel gear disposed at the center of a lower fixed base, and the fixed base is pivotally coupled to a rotary base for carrying the whole fabric folding machine mechanism, and an output axle installed in the rotary base includes a driven bevel gear engaged with the primary bevel gear, so that when the body of the fabric folding machine is rotated with the knitting machine, the driven bevel gear and the primary bevel gear will move correspondingly, and a sprocket and a chain of the output axle drive a stepless variable speed input axle which is on a side of the rotary base, such that the stepless variable speed input axle rotates at a specific speed, and drives a sprocket module through a vertical transmission mechanism, and a chain installed in the sprocket module includes a connector having a central hole and moving according to the movements of the chain. Further, the internal sides of two sideboards constituting the fabric folding machine include a set of fixing boards, and a set of sliding tracks are secured onto rectangular holes of the fixing boards by screws, and a fabric folding board is installed between two sliding tracks and each installs at least one pulley capable of sliding in the set of sliding tracks. In the meantime, a sliding board disposed at the bottom of the fabric folding board can slide sideway. The sliding board includes pulleys separately disposed on both sides of the sliding board and embedded into both sides of a set of guiding rods installed at a guiding seat on the bottom surface of the fabric folding board, so that the sliding board can be slid to the right or left of the fabric folding board within an appropriate range. The sliding board includes a connecting pillar disposed at the bottom of the sliding board and inserted into a connecting hole of a connector on the chain, such that when the whole fabric folding machine drives a rotary base to rotate and the output axle uses a stepless variable speed machine to drive the chain to produce periodic movements, the connector drives the sliding board to slide the fabric folding board back and forth horizontally, so as to stack the fabrics neatly on the fabric folding board. The stepless variable speed machine comes with the characteristics of having stepless variable speed and retarding the rotary speed to zero, so that it can change the speed of sliding the fabric folding board back and forth according to the speed of unloading the fabrics and the rotary speed of the knitting machine. The invention can achieve the best effect for receiving and folding fabrics and thus complying with the requirements for a patent application.”
The abstract of the Prior Art 3 describes “A large circular knitting fabric folding apparatus having the functions of synchronously adjusting the tension of rolled fabrics, folding fabrics and rolling fabrics includes a primary transmission axle disposed on a transmission box of a machine body, and a chain engages a secondary transmission axle of the gear box with the primary transmission axle to drive a cam disc on the gear box to rotate. With the link rods disposed in a guiding track of the cam disc and pivotally coupled to the machine, the preinstalled tracks can be rotated and moved periodically, and the guidance of the link rod can drive the fabric folding board to displace back and forth regularly. A cable is wound onto two swinging arms and pulleys on the machine box. The foregoing structure of the invention can achieve the effect of synchronously adjusting the tension of rolling the fabrics and the device for concurrently rolling and folding fabrics.”
Referring to FIG. 1 for the schematic planar view of a prior art fabric folding machine, the abstracts of Prior Arts 1, 2 and 3 clearly show that the main technical measures of the prior art use a link mechanism 16′ and a link rod 161′ to indirectly drive the carrying base 12′ to move, so that the carrying base 12′ can use a sliding channel 121′ separately disposed on both sides of the carrying base 12′ to horizontally slide back and forth on the sliding track 112′ of the side seats 11′ to naturally let the fabrics be folded and stacked onto the carrying base 12′ of the fabric folding machine 10′.
In summation of the descriptions above, these prior arts have same existing problems as follows:
1. Since the carrying base 12′ of the prior arts requires sufficient space under the carrying base 12′ to achieve the back and forth movements and install the link mechanism 16′ and sliding track 112′, the position for installing the carrying base 12′ must be higher, and thus relatively reducing the carrying space 30′ for folding fabrics on the carrying base 12′.
2. If it is necessary to increase the carrying space 30′ for folding fabrics on the carrying base 12′, the side seats 11′ must be added at the top, the transmission rod 111′ must be elongated, and the fabric rolling rod 13′ is moved upward, and such changes will affect the shape of a connecting element (not shown in the figure) disposed between the fabric folding machine 10′ and the circular knitting machine, and thus requiring a new design which is not cost-effective.
3. Since these prior arts slide the carrying base 12′ back and forth horizontally on the sliding track 112′, therefore the size of the folded fabric must be smaller than one half of the length of the sliding track 112′. In other words, these prior art fabric folding machines 10′ can only fold a fabric 40 with the size of a half fold and cannot fold a fabric 40 with the size of a full fold which is equal to the length of the sliding track 112′.
The problems of the foregoing prior art fabric folding machine are the problems existing in the industry and cannot be solved effectively, and thus such problems demand immediate attention and feasible solutions.